Today was a travel day from Bhutan through Khatmandu to Chengdu, China. Not only have we lost all track of dates and days of the week by this time in our travels, today really did a number on our sense of the concept of time. When we landed in Nepal the time was 15 minutes behind Bhutan and when we landed in China we were two hours and 15 minutes ahead of Nepal and when we texted the girls upon our arrival at 7:00 pm in China, it was something like 2:00 am in the morning in California.
Mount Everest taken from the window of our airplane as we flew from Bhutan to Kathmandu.
Not only did we struggle with the concept of time today, we also experienced three immensely different cultures. We left our friendly, happy, peaceful community of Bhutan and flew to Khatmandu where we had a four hour layover. (Many of you may recall that our trip was originally scheduled to go to Nepal and Mt. Everest for three days. Because of the earthquake, this part of the trip was cancelled due to infrastructure issues) Our fantastic trip leader Rakesh made it possible for us to leave the airport, visit the largest Stupa in Nepal and get in a little shopping. What a shock to the senses this two hour trip was! The area around the Stupa was crawling with Tibetan refugees and Nepalese. Large groups were singing songs and chanting. The streets were streaming with beggars. The entire pulse of Khatmandu was high energy and a very different contrast to Bhutan. After our “Chevy Chase does Khatmandu” tour, we were back on a plane to Chengdu, China.
The Stupa in Kathmandu. It was felled by the earthquake. You can see what it used to look like in the foreground. It is currently being rebuilt.
Chengdu, China is also a very different shock to our senses. It is an ultra-modern metropolis with 14 million residents. Brad said it felt like we were dropped into a movie set of a futuristic city with flying cars. We are staying in a hotel on the 41st floor looking out at high-rise upon high-rise. We were certainly not expecting a city this modern or a hotel room that sported the world’s coolest toilet ever!
Chengdu skyline from our hotel room. Chengdu has a population of 14 million people.
The toilet and its control panel. It does just about everything for you!
Before we conclude this post, we would be remiss to leave out the efforts of our trip leader Rakesh. Rakesh is with us 24 hours a day and takes care of our every need. Our group was a little disappointed about the fact that our time in Nepal was cancelled. Rakesh made sure that, if possible, he would get us into the city. We were whisked through customs, into a bus, dropped off at the Stupa, given time to shop, picked back up by the bus, visited a beautiful hotel, and were dropped off at the airport where our luggage was all checked in for us and taken care of. The timing was impeccable and Rakesh keeps saying it is because our group has good karma. We may have a little of that but what we really have is Rakesh working tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure every detail is taken care of! What he did for us today was a bit of a miracle that we won’t soon forget!
Lisa and Brad's Travels 